[Pnews] People demand Governor Newsom grant mass releases as COVID-19 deaths surge in California prisons

[Prisoner News]

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Contacts:Courtney Morris courtneymorristz at gmail.com 
<mailto:courtneymorristz at gmail.com>

Mohamed Shehk mohamed at criticalresistance.org 
<mailto:mohamed at criticalresistance.org>

Barni Qaasim barni at curyj.org <mailto:barni at curyj.org>



Residents demand Newsom grant mass releases as COVID-19 deaths surge in 
California prisons


Community members plan to rally and car caravan urging prisoner 
releases, starting with elderly, immunocompromised, and trans prisoners


Oakland, CA—On Sunday, January 31st, Californians will hold a car 
protest across the Bay Area to demand that Governor Newsom grant mass 
releases for the state’s prison population. Formerly incarcerated 
leaders, families and friends with incarcerated loved ones, and 
activists will gather at 11:00 am at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in the 
Port of Oakland to call on Governor Newsom to urgently address the 
ongoing crisis of Covid in prisons.


California prisons have the highest numbers of coronavirus cases of 
prisons in the nation and the state has one of the three highest rates 
of death in state prisons. While Newsom placed a moratorium on the death 
penalty in 2019, people in prisons are being executed by COVID-19 
because of governmental inaction, with many more lives at risk. Little 
action has been taken, even as health experts have urged significant 
steps as the pandemic initially spread. For instance, UCSF infectious 
disease experts have urgently called 
<https://amend.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/COVID19-Outbreak-SQ-Prison-6.15.2020.pdf>for 
the San Quentin State Prison population to be reduced by at least50%.


“A prison sentence shouldn’t be a death sentence,” says Sasha Leitmann, 
NJUC. “Governor Newsom needs to act quickly and use his legal authority 
to grant mass releases and prevent avoidable deaths. He must show the 
courage to turn around California’s dark history of mass incarceration, 
starting with releasing the most vulnerable of those 
incarcerated--elderly, immunocompromised, and trans individuals--or his 
legacy is going to be that of thousands of state executions by Covid-19.”


There have been 45,486 coronavirus cases in California state prisons, 
meaning two in five incarcerated people have tested positive. As of 
today, 184 people have already died, with December 2020 bringing the 
steepest increase in deaths. The infection rate is 5 times higher and 
the death rate is 1.7 times higher inside our prisons than in California 
overall. Of the lives lost, the average age is 63 and 75% are part of 
the Armstrong and Coleman class action lawsuits, indicating that a 
majority of those who have died are elderly and have disabilities, which 
is disproportionate to the overall CA prison population. Additionally, 
forty-nine of those who died were eligible for parole or had release dates.


"Doing time for selling drugs shouldn’t be a death sentence,” says J. 
Vasquez, Policy Coordinator for Communities United for Restorative Youth 
Justice. “184 people have already died from COVID inside California 
prisons and the death rate is increasing dramatically. Overcrowding is 
still a huge problem because the prison population is well over 100 
percent of design capacity. It is impossible to socially distance, and 
incarcerated people are denied adequate access to disinfectant. The only 
sensible solution to this problem is to immediately decrease the prison 
population."


California has one of the largest prison populations in the country with 
95,000 people in state prisons, the vast majority of whom do not have 
access to PPE, hygiene supplies, covid testing, or adequate nutrition. 
While Newsom released 18,300 people early in the pandemic, the state has 
failed to reduce its prison population to the minimum level required to 
socially distance. Nine prisons remain at over 120% capacity, and 
coronavirus infections have been documented in all 35 state facilities. 
UCSF public health experts released an urgent memo this summer 
recommending that California reduce its current prison population by at 
least 50%. The state has reacted by transferring people from a facility 
experiencing a surge, thereby creating a surge in the next facility and 
further expanding the crisis of Covid in prisons. The only solution is 
mass releases and an end to the transfers, including and especially 
transfers to ICE detention centers.


“We demand care not cages,” says Nick Direnzi of the Oakland chapter of 
Critical Resistance. “As community members are struggling to have stable 
healthcare, housing, income, and food during this pandemic, California 
is continuing to spend $16 billion a year to lock people up in cages. 
The COVID-19 crisis has exposed how prioritizing imprisonment while 
undercutting life-affirming resources means that all of us are less safe 
and less prepared to get through this pandemic. Newsom must take 
immediate action to release people from prisons to ensure their health 
and well being.”


____________________________________________________________


No Justice Under Capitalism is a coalition that came together to draw 
public attention to the potential emergency of Covid in California 
prisons, and has since been fighting for mass releases across California.


Critical Resistance is a national organization based in Oakland, CA that 
works to challenge the idea that imprisonment, policing, and 
surveillance keep our communities safe.


Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice CURYJ (pronounced 
“courage”) unlocks the leadership of young people to dream beyond bars


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